Giants Sweep The Rockies

After last Monday's heartbreaker in Denver, I wrote off the Giants' postseason chances. Many of us Giants fans did. Last weekend in Colorado was miserable, and Ryan Spilborghs' grand slam was the icing on the cake.

Bruce Bochy said after Monday's game that he was curious to see how his troops would respond. This team showed its resiliency yet again during this homestand.

The cure for all of the Giants' ills last weekend was simply coming home to the friendly confines of AT&T Park, where they are a dominant 44-21. Except for Thursday's 11-0 beating at the hands of the Diamondbacks, the Giants reversed their disappointing road trip with a 5-1 homestand. The pitching, as usual, was fantastic, but the Giants won these five games with some longball magic. Travis Ishikawa hit a 3-run HR on Tuesday in the 8th inning to break a 2-2 tie, Bengie Molina had his Kirk Gibson moment on Wednesday, Pablo Sandoval homered both Friday and Saturday, and Edgar Renteria had his biggest moment as a Giants today with a grand slam to lay the groundwork for a Giants sweep. Isn't it nice to score runs? This team doesn't need to be an offensive juggernaut to be formiddable because their pitching will always keep them in games. But too often has this lineup been inept, and we saw this homestand that when the Giants produce timely hits, they're awfuly tough to beat.

The Giants' rotation lined up perfectly this weekend with Lincecum, Zito, and Cain, and as expected, the pitching was stellar all series. The three starters combined went 22.1 innings and allowed only 5 runs (including on a day where Matt Cain wasn't himself) with 23 strikeouts. The Rockies had no chance against the Giants' pitching. Lincecum struggled on the road trip, but back in the cool weather of San Francisco, he was his dominant self again, which was a very encouraging sign. But the Giant who shined more than anyone else was Barry Zito. Zito rose to the challenge in his biggest start in a Giants uniform and pitched like the Zito of the 2002 Oakland A's, allowing only 1 run in 8.1 innings with 7 strikeouts. He has a stingy 1.92 ERA in his last nine starts and since the All-Star break, he has not allowed more than 3 runs in a single outing. Zito was Public Enemy #1 for all Giants fans the past two seasons, but he has won the respect and admiration of the Giants faithful through his outstanding pitching all year. You have to give a ton of credit and praise to Zito. He withstood a ton of antagonism from Giants' fans (some deservedly so, some over-the-top) and he worked his tail off to regain his velocity and tighten his mechanics. So many players become disgustingly complacent after receiving a monster contract (see Adrian Beltre), but Zito has accomplished his mission to recapture his form that made him one of baseball's very best. He deserved every bit of the standing ovation and curtain call yesterday. I don't want to hear any more anti-Zito nonsense. The Giants wouldn't be in contention without him.

The Giants now embark on another tough road trip to Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Being a grad student in Philly, I'm pumped that the Giants will be here and I'll be going to either Wednesday's or Thursday's game. Don't think that the Phillies have forgotten about losing 3 out of 4 in San Francisco. The Giants better bring their A-Game to Citizens Bank Park because the Phillies are legitimate World-Series contenders. Also, the Rockies will face the reeling and dysfunctional Mets at home in an effort to return to their winning ways. The sweep of the Rockies was magical, but it won't mean anything unless the Giants can sustain the momentum. Stay tuned.